Reducing pendency of cases, making justice accessible to poor main priorities: Ranjan Gogoi

NEW DELHI: Days before Chief Justice of India-designate is to take over the charge as head of judiciary, Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Saturday spelt out his plan of action as a CJI to deal with the problem faced by judiciary and said that he will soon unfold a plan to tackle the problem of pendency which is bringing a lot of disrepute to the judicial system.

Addressing a gathering of young lawyers, Justice Gogoi, who will take over the charge of CJI on October 3, said twin issues—huge pendency of cases and the justice not being accessible to the poor and marginalised sections of society—are troubling him and hinted that his priority as head of the judiciary will be to deal with them.

"Two things are troubling me. One is pendency of cases. It is bringing lot of disrepute to the judicial system. The problem has the potential of making the system itself irrelevant. Accused in criminal cases are getting hearing after serving their sentence and in civil dispute the parties are getting judgements after 2-3 generations. It is serious problem, But it is not too difficult a problem and it can be resolved. I have a plan and will soon unfold it,” Justice Gogoi said.

He said the second issue is providing justice to poverty-stricken population in the country which also needed to be done on priority basis. “I am trying to make justice accessible while acting as Executive Chairman of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) for the last one year. I do not know how far I have succeeded. A different approach and a different thinking is needed for it and it will be forthcoming in near future,” Justice Gogoi said while addressing a gathering of young lawyers.

He was speaking at the function organised by Youth Bar Association of India, a body of young lawyers of different parts of the country. Emphasising the need of active involvement of lawyers in his effort to get over the problems, he appealed the Bar to give a thought on these problems and get involved with efforts made by the judiciary to find a solution.

“You as lawyers and we as judges are responsible on how social, political and economic rights of people are delivered to 1.3 billion population... Kindly give a thought on these problems and see how it can be resolved,” he said adding, “Judges are what Bar makes them and Judgements are what Bar writes(in written submission in court)”.

Responding to a question on judicial activism and judiciary sometimes encroaching upon the domain of the legislature and the executive, Justice Gogoi, who is known for maintaining judicial restraint by refusing to entertain PILs on policy matters of government, said “there is no question of stepping out of the separation of power”.

Justice Gogoi, who will take over as the 46th CJI, will be the first in the post from the Northeast. He will have a tenure of over 13 months. A no-nonsense judge who believes in action and not talking, Justice Gogoi had issued contempt notice to SC former judge Markandey Katju for his contemptuous remarks against a judgement authored by him. Justice Gogoi, however, let him off in the case after he tendered unconditional apology.

All Comments ()+^ Back to Top

Characters Remaining: 3000

Continue without login

or

Login from existing account

FacebookGoogleEmail

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Refrain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks, name calling or inciting hatred against any community. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by marking them offensive. Let's work together to keep the conversation civil.